Haryana real estate authority imposes fine of Rs 12 lakh, criminal action against firm

Gurugram, Sep 21 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA), Gurugram, imposed a penalty of Rs 12 lakh on a private firm ISH Realtors for defrauding with the licences granted to it by the District Town and Country Planning Department (DTCP).

The DTCP had issued a licence in 2011 in favour of seven land owners in collaboration with Jitender Jhangu for development of the commercial project on a land measuring 3.7187 acre falling in the revenue estate of Pawal Khusurpur village in Gurugram's Sector-109.

It is an ongoing project and had to be registered with the RERA after it came into existence in 2017 in Haryana.

"Our aim is to safeguard the interest of allottees who have invested hard-earned money in the project that is why we have issued showcause notices to licence/s, landowners and collaborator/s after taking suo moto cognisance of the offence," said K.K. Khandelwal, RERA Chairman.

The authority also stated no mention of ISH Realtors as a collaborator is anywhere in any record in the licence, yet it sold units and collected money from the buyers in violation of RERA, which took cognisance of the offence in July.

The penalty of Rs 12 lakh has been imposed after the authority observed negligence in complying with the necessary documents the ISH Realtors was asked to submit to the authority for a scrutiny in order to complete the registration process.

"The ISH Realtors' representatives failed to produce the BIP permission certificate before the RERA quorum during the hearing on Tuesday -- a necessary document without which the company was not supposed to engage itself in any sale purchase of the commercial spaces at its sector-109 construction site," RERA Chairman said.

While hearing the matter for the first time in July, the authority on the request of the company had granted adequate time of two months to ISH Realtors to apply for the RERA registration and obtain the registration certificate by completing mandatory formalities.

"A week's time is being granted to ISH Realtors to complete deficient documents failing which it would be considered repeated offence and a criminal procedure will be initiated," the authority noted while seeking the additional details of directors and shareholders of the company as well to examine the case more rigorously.

The authority, meanwhile, has restrained the ISH Realtors to withdraw any money/amount from any bank accounts where the allottees' money was realised and deposited or further transferred in any other bank accounts in respect of the sale/allotment/booking/provisional allotment of any units in the project.

The authority has also issued directions to freeze the bank account in the name of the ISH Realtors Private Limited or any other account held by the directors of the company or the land owners where the amount realised from the buyers-cum-complainants is alleged to have been deposited.

In July, Pushpender Singh Rajpurohit, Director of 'Univer Solution Private Limited' had filed a complaint with RERA of cheating against ISH Realtors Private Limited.

"Despite having received substantial amount, neither any construction was raised at the site nor any development work was carried out by the," said Rajpurohit in his complaint.

It was found by the authority that the project that was advertised, developed and sold was not registered.

"This is a blatant violation of Section 3 (1) of the Act and civil imprisonment can also take place if it fails to authority's scrutiny," said Khandelwal, adding if any promoter contravenes Section 3 he will be liable to a penalty which may extend up to 10 per cent of the estimated cost of the project.

Source: IANS